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Thursday federal headlines - June 6, 2013

Thursday - 6/6/2013, 8:37am EDT

The Morning Federal Newscast is a daily compilation of the stories you hear Federal
Drive hosts Tom Temin and Emily Kopp discuss throughout the show each day. The
Newscast is designed to give FederalNewsRadio.com users more information about the
stories you hear on the air.

The Internal Revenue Service has
placed two employees on administrative leave for accepting free food at a
conference party. Congressional sources say the pair accepted $1,100 worth of food
and other items. The IRS says it's considering firing the pair. The incident took
place at a 2010 conference in Anaheim that cost the agency $4.1 million. Acting
Commissioner Danny Werfel testifies on Capitol Hill today about IRS conference
spending. The IRS wouldn't publicly identify the workers. Congressional aides said
one is Frederick Schindler, director of implementation oversight in the agency's
Affordable Care Act office. (Federal News Radio)

The General
Services Administration has finalized a deal with Donald Trump to redevelop
the Old Post Office Pavilion. Trump will lease the downtown complex for the next
60 years. He'll spend $200 million on it and build a luxury hotel, restaurants,
conference facilities and a spa. GSA has sent the lease to Congress for a 30-day
review. GSA head Dan Tangherlini says the lease will save the government millions
of dollars, while restoring the historic site. GSA and Trump have spent more than
a year negotiating the deal. Construction is supposed to begin next year. (GSA)

A new inspector general report says the TSA's five-year-old program to spot sketchy
behavior is a failure. The IG says it's neither objective nor strategic. TSA
agrees with recommendations to develop a strategic plan, implement controls and
retrain officers. But it may be too late. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the
ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, has sponsored a measure
to kill funding for the program. He cites a history of racial profiling
allegations and a lack of measurable results. TSA has spent $1 billion on the
program. About 5 percent of transportation security officers work on it. (DHS)

The Transportation Security
Administration is giving up on a plan to let airline passengers carry small
knives aboard. Miniature baseball bats, golf clubs and lacrosse sticks will also
remain verboten. TSA administrator John Pistole says the agency needs to move on
to other priorities. When he announced the knife-aboard plan in April, Pistole was
assailed by criticism from the airline industry, flight attendants unions and
members of Congress. Pistole thought allowing small folding knives and the like
would simplify and speed up passenger searches. Now the agency will focus on
projects such as its Pre-Check program. That will let low risk passengers exchange
personal information for a fast lane through security checkpoints. (Federal
News Radio)

The Environmental Protection Agency has kicked contractors out of its
Landover, Md., warehouse after the inspector general found multiple TVs, weight machines and a
messy record-keeping system. The IG's early-warning report says the agency failed
to oversee personal property and warehouse space. Auditors found unsecured
passports among vermin feces and mold. The warehouse stores sensitive objects,
such as passports, electronic equipment and computers for EPA headquarters. The
agency is assessing the damage. Apex Logistics of College Park managed the
warehouse. (EPA)

The body of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) will lie in the Capitol today so
that Congress and the public can pay their respects. Lautenberg was the last
World War II veteran to serve in the Senate. At his funeral yesterday, Vice
President Joe Biden remembered Lautenberg as someone who "never quit anything."
Lautenberg sponsored a 1984 law that threatened to withhold federal highway money
from states if they did not raise the legal drinking age to 21. He will be buried
tomorrow at Arlington National Ceremony. He died Monday at the age of 89. He
suffered complications from pneumonia. (Federal News Radio)

The National Security Agency is collecting the telephone records of millions
of Verizon customers. The Guardian reports, the NSA received permission in April
from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The order covers a three
month period that ends July 19. The scope of the permission is unusual. Most FISA
orders cover named suspects in specific cases. The blanket order forces Verizon to
hand over data on location, time, duration and unique identifiers of wireless
calls. But NSA can't see what people said on the calls. (The Guardian)